Increasingly nowadays people buy products remotely, e.g. by telephone or via the Internet, for delivery to their homes by the seller or his agent. Frequently, the purchaser is away from home at the time of delivery and the product cannot be left in a secure location. Various proposals have been made to deal with this problem. One such proposal provides a container having a door openable solely by a coded electrical signal input from a key touch pad, the appropriate code being sent, e.g. by mobile phone, to delivery personnel authorised by the intended recipient of the delivery. An example of such an arrangement is that known as “BearBox” promoted on the Internet site: bearbox.com. Such an arrangement has the disadvantages
(a) of permitting a subsequent delivery-man access to a previously delivered item and
(b) the difficulty of providing codes to delivery personnel.
To overcome these disadvantages other past proposals provide a container divided into first and second compartments, the delivered item being placed in the first compartment and moved therefrom to the second compartment when or after the door to the first compartment is closed. To provide security, restriction means is provided to prevent access to the second compartment when the door to the first compartment is opened. One such restriction means comprises an attachment to the door of the first compartment which moves to block access to the second compartment when the door to the first compartment is opened. Another such restriction means comprises a hinged flap or partition that tilts after the item has been delivered, e.g. the arrangement known as “dVault” promoted on the Internet site: dvault.net.
To allow for operation of such restriction means the overall size of the container must be very much larger than the maximum size of article to be delivered. For example with the secure delivery apparatus described in GB-2242481, it is estimated that the container must be approximately twice the depth and three times the height of the largest item that can be delivered into it. This dimensional disadvantage appears also to apply to the prior art arrangement disclosed for example in EP-0576311. Other disadvantages, including unduly complex mechanisms for moving the delivered item from the first or delivery compartment to the second or storage compartment are disclosed in GB-2204914 and GB-2262132.